Tennis Forever

[VinodKumar's]

Aanalum neer remba fast ya ...

[JamesDap]

Players crumbling in the season end. Evidently exhausted and out of gas. Again, it is a point worth repeating, that ATP should simply ignore their selfish pleas for slow courts and speed up the courts as well as balls again. Because not having enough of the top guys making it to the business end of tournaments will hurt viewership even more than fast courts ever did.

[JamesDap]

Fed scrapes through to the next after a very unconvincing performance against Leonardo Mayer. Fortunately for him, he was up against a guy who was so brainy as to serve volley on match point in the third set tiebreak. And allowed Fed to pass him and get back on even terms, eventually winning the tiebreak and with it the match. Time for Nadal fans to whine about his luck again but they need hardly worry because in this kind of form Fed looks like a walking bye. Would much rather he loses in a 'tough' match against some journeyman than getting brutalised by Djoko in the final who is playing very well at the moment.

[Arvind Srinivasan]

Feel sorry for Mayer. He was on the verge of tears. A very underwhelming performance from Federer though. On current form he is sure to get bumped off by Djokovic in the semis if they meet

[VinodKumar's]

Murray lost to Ferrer ...

[JamesDap]

Djoko made to work hard to get past Kushkushin. Fed had an easy outing against Batistuta Agut. But the next one against Benneteau could be tricky, esp since the conditions could favour a big hitter like Benneteau. Still, 'Olderer' to use the nickname given by some tennis forum is back to no.2 yet again. Is it time to call the bluff on the weak era-strong era argument often made to discredit Fed's achievements? Esp because, Agassi in 2005 was the last player of age 33 or more to be ranked no.2. Fed has played brilliantly in patches and has been horrendous at other times. To still get to no.2 (and probably in a good position to finish the year on that ranking) doesn't say much for the quality of competition, I am afraid. At least he had to play far better, used to commit far fewer errors in the 2004-2007 dream years.

[VinodKumar's]

It's Lopez vs Simon and Novak vs Roger in semi finals

[Arvind Srinivasan]

Great first set. Benneteau was playing very well till he derailed in the second. It would have been a lot more interesting if he had converted the mini break chances he had in the tie break.

[JamesDap]

From the highlights, looks like Fed has found some form again. But Djoko also played some unbelievable shots against Ferrer. And while Shanghai is fast, it's not quite Dubai/Cincy fast so the conditions should favour Djoko. Betting on Djoko but this is always a tricky match up, maybe it's the best serve v/s best return contrast.

[Arvind Srinivasan]

^ Will be a good match. Just bundled out a statistic. Of Novak's 17 wins against Federer, only 6 have been straight set victories. Mind you, 11 out of the 17 wins came after the year 2010. So will be very interesting to see as to how this one pans out. Djokovic's defense has been great this week. Will see how it holds up against Federer.